Catching Up

I can't believe how fast this summer has gone by as IMMT is now just around the corner and taper time is here.  Last Wednesday I took half the day off to squeeze in a four bike and 30 minute run as I wasn't around for the weekend. I left the house at 6:15 am and headed out by myself to Zephyr.  Riding north on York/Durham wasn't all that fun as most of the traffic was heading south into the city but whenever a northbound car approached they had to slow down as they had limited opportunity to move over the yellow line to pass me.  Thankfully no one tried to "squeeze" by.  I rode over to Concession 4 and got as far as Davis Drive where they were repaving the road.  I had to ride on west on Davis Drive to Concession 3 but traffic was very light.  Looking to the north, dark storm clouds were forming over Lake Simcoe and I had no desire to get caught in a rainstorm.  I hit the store (the only) in Zephyr were I saw two tri guys out for an early ride.  Otherwise I didn't see any other riders.  I climbed the hill going back to Concession 4 just to get some additional mileage in but I wondered if I was going to get caught in the rain.  Once at the top of the hill, I turned around and bombed down the hill and headed back on Concession 3.  Heading north there was a brutal headwind but now I had a nice tailwind.  Just before the big hill on Concession 3 south of Ainsworth Road, there is a campground that I discovered had a water fountain where I can reload my water bottles.  I felt a couple of rain drops as I headed out of the park.  With the tailwind I managed to shave off 15 minutes.  Too bad I can't always ride at that speed.  I also managed to out run the storm.  I got home and did a quick 5 km brick run and then headed into work, only to find out my afternoon meeting was cancelled.

Thursday morning we were heading out to lovely, sunny, tropical Saskatoon for my brother-in-law's wedding.  We were flying out at 10 am so Tammy didn't want me to go swimming at 6 am so I opted for a short run.  I left the house just after 6:15 am and got back 35 minutes later to find Tammy and the kids waiting impatiently by the door with all the suitcases.  Doh!  "Go take a shower" everyone yelled, "we're going to be late!!"   Ahh the flight is at 10 am and we live about 40 minutes away from the airport.......  Needless to say, we made it through check in with only 70 minutes to spare.

Coach had factored in my trip to my workout schedule but I opted to make some changes.  For example, he scheduled a long run (28 km) the day after the wedding.  Hmmmm, that might be a challenge.  The weather was also chilly and rainy for the next couple of days so I ran Friday morning while everyone was still asleep.  Saskatoon is two hours behind Toronto time so while I was used to waking up around 4:30 am, in Saskatoon that would be around 2:30 am.  I didn't quite wake up that early but it was still early enough.  Interesting, Saskatoon is much further north than Toronto so that means sunrise is around 5:00 am while back home, it would be just after 6:00 am.  Totally awesome in the summer time but it must suck in the winter (short daylight).

Mapping out a route was challenging as my brother-in-law moved to a new subdivision and the streets had very similar sounding names:  Briarhurst, Briarvale, Briardale  etc.  Really??  They couldn't think of different names?  I ran out of the subdivision and down Taylor Street which would take me straight to the Saskatchewan River.  I've run along the river before and there are some nice trails.  It should be about 12 km to the river and the street was a secondary road so hopefully it wouldn't be too busy.  Also, if I timed it right, I'd miss rush hour as I figured to be running back home around 9 am.  I mean seriously, how long could rush hour last in Saskatoon in the middle of summer?  I found Taylor Street easy enough and ran for about 13 minutes when the street abruptly ended in a new subdivision under construction.  Doh!  I ran the wrong way.  I ran back past where I started and headed towards downtown and the river.  Pretty uneventful run.  The roads were nice and wide but not in great shape to ride a bike.  It was pretty quiet out as I passed only four runners and one cyclist.  I guess everyone sleeps late in Saskatoon.  I made it down to the river and followed a nice trail along the fast moving water.  I ran to a new road bridge which had a pedestrian crossing underneath, so I ran across to the other side.  Kind of cool but the crossing was made of solid concrete and I could feel it on my feet.  I made it home after 2:45 run but not before getting lost coming into the subdivision.  What street did he live on?  Briarhill, Briarvale......

The next morning was wedding day and I decided to go for a 6:00 am swim.  I headed over to the Shaw Center (I guess sponsored by Shaw Communications).  It is a massive complex with basically three pools.  A play area and water slide for kids, a regular 25 meter pool and a beautiful 50 meter 10 lane pool with dive towers.  Its staggering to think how much water is in that pool.  The water was crystal clear and cool.  Perfect for lane swimming.  In the middle lanes, there was a swim club so I opted to take the lane against the wall.  During my swim, I could see people standing on the deck near the lane where I was swimming.  No one said anything to me so I kept swimming.  After I finished, I noticed a bunch of backpacks with bike helmets on the the deck.  I can only assume I took some tri-club's lane and they went to the other side of the pool.  I assume this pool will be similar to the new Pan-Am Games pool that is being built 15 minutes away from my home.  Sweet!  Other than that, the swim was ho-hum.  I'm really glad Tammy got me a Finis ipod so I can listen to music while I swim.  These 3,800 meter swims are getting boring.

On another note, I took my bike into the LBS near work.  I needed a race tuneup badly as my gears were slipping.  They checked their computer for the last time I changed my chain and cassette and it was August 2012.  Right before IMMT.  Time for a new one.  Afterwards, I started having issues with my Power Tap.  When I started riding, it would show really low watts like 30 watts, 50 watts, 17 watts.  Then about 20 minutes later it would reading normally.  I'm toying with the idea of getting a new wireless Power Tap but that would cost $850 and I'd need a Garmin to read the data seeing that I use Polar and the Little Yellow Computer only works for wired harness.  So I'd be looking around $1,400 or I can get a new set of wheels and a wireless Power Tap for $1,100 but I'd still need a new Garmin.
Agghhh what to do?

Taper makes me feel like this..........



But at least I can run faster than this guy......






That's all I got..........